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European wars of religion

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

(Redirectedfrom Religious wars in Europe)

The name Wars of Religion has been

given to a series of European wars of theSixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries,following the onset of the ProtestantReformation. Although sometimesunconnected, all of these wars werestrongly influenced by the religiouschange of the period, and the conflict andrivalry that it produced.

Wars that can be placed in this categorytook place in Switzerland, France,

Germany, Austria, Bohemia, theNetherlands, England, Scotland, Irelandand Denmark.

Germany and Bohemia

The Holy Roman Empire, encompassing present-dayGermany and portions of neighbouring lands, was the

single most devastated area by the so-called "Wars of Religion." The Empire was a fragmentedcollection of semi-independent states with an elected Holy Roman Emperor as its head; after the 14thcentury, this position was usually held by a Habsburg. The Austrian House of Habsburg was a majorEuropean power in its own right, ruling over some eight million subjects in present day Germany,

Contents

1 Germany and Bohemia 1.1 The Radicals 1.2 The Schmalkaldic Wars 1.3 The Thirty Years War

2 France 2.1 The 1560s 2.2 Henry III 2.3 Henry IV

3 The Netherlands 3.1 Division

4 Switzerland 5 Britain and Ireland

5.1 Scottish Reformation 5.2 English Civil War

5.3 Ireland 5.4 Scotland, Civil War

6 Denmark 7 References 8 See also

The Battle of the White Mountain in Bohemia (1620) - oneof the decisive battles of the Thirty Years War.

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Austria, Bohemia and Hungary. The Empire alsocontained regional powers, such as Bavaria, ElectoralSaxony, the Margraviate of Brandenburg, the Palatinate,Hesse, the Archbishopric of Trier and Wrttemberg. Avast number of minor independent duchies, free imperialcities, abbeys, bishoprics, and small lordships ofsovereign families rounded out the Empire.

Lutheranism from its inception at Wittenberg in 1519,found a ready reception in Germany, as well as informerly Hussite Bohemia. The aggressive anti-catholicpreaching of Martin Luther and his many followerssowed the seeds of future conflict.

In Northern Germany, Luther adopted the stratagem ofgaining the support of the local princes in his struggle totake over and re-establish the church along Lutheranlines. The Elector of Saxony, the Landgrave of Hesse and other North German princes not only

protected Luther from retaliation from the edict of outlawry issued by the Holy Roman Emperor,Charles V, but also used state power to enforce the establishment of Lutheran worship in their lands.Church property was seized and Catholic worship was forbidden in most lands which adopted theLutheran reformation. The political conflicts thus engendered within the Empire led almostinevitably to war.

The Radicals

The first large-scale violence was engendered by the more radical of Luther's followers, who wishedto extend wholesale reform of the Church to a similar wholesale reform of society in general. Thiswas a step which the princes who supported Luther were in no way willing to countenance. The

Peasants' War of 1524/1525, was a popular revolt inspired by the teachings of the radicalreformers. It consisted of a series of economic as well as religious revolts by peasants, townsfolk andnobles. The conflict took place mostly in southern, western and central areas of modern Germany butalso affected areas in neighboring modern Switzerland and Austria. At its height, in the spring andsummer of 1525, it involved an estimated 300,000 peasant insurgents. Contemporary estimates putthe dead at 100,000. It was Europe's largest and most widespread popular uprising before the 1789French Revolution.

Because of their revolutionary political ideas, radical reformers like Thomas Mntzer werecompelled to leave the Lutheran cities of North Germany in the early 1520s. They spread theirrevolutionary religious and political doctrines into the countryside of Bohemia, Southern Germany,

and Switzerland. Starting as a revolt against feudal oppression, the Peasants' uprising became a waragainst all constituted authorities, and an attempt to establish by force an ideal Christiancommonwealth, with absolute equality and the community of goods. The total defeat of theinsurgents at Frankenhausen (May 15, 1525), was followed by the execution of Mntzer andthousands of peasant followers. Martin Luther rejected the demands of the insurgents and upheld theright of Germany's rulers to suppress the uprisings. This played a major part in the rejection of histeachings by many German peasants, particularly in the south.

After the Peasants' War (1524/25), a second and more determined attempt to establish a theocracywas made at Mnster, in Westphalia (15321535). Here a group of prominent citizens, includingBernhard Rothmann, the Lutheran pastor, Jan Matthys, and Jan Bockelson had little difficulty inobtaining possession of the town on January 5, 1534. Matthys identified Mnster as the "NewJerusalem", and preparations were made, not only to hold what had been gained, but to proceed fromMnster toward the conquest of the world.

The Holy Roman Empire with present daynational boundaries


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Claiming to be the successor of David, John of Leiden was installed as king, legalized polygamy,and himself took sixteen wives, one of whom he beheaded himself in the marketplace. Communityof goods was also established. After obstinate resistance the town was taken by the besiegers on June24, 1535, and in Leiden and some of his more prominent followers were executed in themarketplace.

The Schmalkaldic Wars

Following the Diet of Augsburg in 1530, the Emperor demanded that all religious innovations notauthorised by the Diet be abandoned by 15 April 1531. Failure to comply would result in prosecutionby the Imperial Court. In response, the Lutheran princes who had set up Protestant churches in theirown realms, met in the town of Schmalkalden in December 1530. Here they banded together to formthe Schmalkaldic League (German: Schmalkaldischer Bund) an alliance designed to protectthemselves from Imperial action. Its members eventually intended the League to replace the HolyRoman Empire itself, and each state was to provide 10,000 infantry and 2,000 cavalry for mutualdefence. In 1532 the Emperor, pressed by external troubles, stepped back from confrontation,offering the "Peace of Nuremberg," which suspended all action against the Protestant states pendinga General Council of the Church. The moratorium kept peace in the German lands for over a decade.However this was a decade in which Protestantism was able to entrench its position in the lands thatit already occupied. And it was also able to spread. The peace finally ended in the Schmalkaldic War(German: Schmalkaldischer Krieg), a brief conflict between 1546 and 1547 between the forces ofCharles V and the princes of the Schmalkaldic League. The conflict was to the advantage of theCatholics, and the Emperor was able to impose the Augsburg Interim, a compromise allowingslightly modified worship, and supposed to remain in force until the conclusion of a General Councilof the Church. However various Protestant elements rejected the Interim, and the SecondSchmalkaldic war broke out in 1552.

The Peace of Augsburg (1555), signed by Charles

V, Holy Roman Emperor, confirmed the result ofthe 1526 Diet of Speyer and ended the violencebetween the Lutherans and the Catholics inGermany. It stated that:

German princes (numbering 225) couldchoose the religion (Lutheranism orCatholicism) of their realms according totheir conscience (the principle ofcuiusregio, eius religio). The citizens of eachstate were forced to adopt the religion of

their rulers. Lutherans living in an ecclesiastical state

(under the control of a bishop) couldcontinue to practice their faith.

Lutherans could keep the territory that theyhad captured from the Catholic Churchsince the Peace of Passau in 1552.

The ecclesiastical leaders of the CatholicChurch (bishops) that had converted toLutheranism were required to give up theirterritories.

Religious tensions remained strong throughout thesecond half of the 16th century. The Peace ofAugsburg began to unravel as some bishops

Peace of Augsburg

Negotiating the Peace of Augsburg

Participants Ferdinand, King of the Romans

acting for Charles V. Delegates from

the Imperial Estates

Location Augsburg

Date 1555

Result (1) The principle ofcuius regio, eius

religio established religious

conformity within a single state. Two




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converting to Protestantism refused to give uptheir bishoprics. This was evident from theCologne War (158283), a conflict initiated whenthe prince-archbishop of the city converted toCalvinism. Religious tensions also broke intoviolence in the German free city of Donauwrthin 1606 when the Lutheran majority barred theCatholic residents from holding a procession,provoking a riot. This prompted intervention byDuke Maximilian of Bavaria on behalf of theCatholics.

By the end of the 16th century the Rhine lands andthose of southern Germany remained largelyCatholic, while Lutherans predominated in thenorth, and Calvinists dominated in west-centralGermany, Switzerland and the Netherlands. Thelatter formed the League of Evangelical Union in1608.

The Thirty Years War

By 1617 Germany was bitterly divided, and it was clear that

Matthias, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Bohemia, woulddie without an heir. His lands would therefore fall to his nearest male relative, his cousin Ferdinandof Styria. Ferdinand, having been educated by the Jesuits, was a staunch Catholic. The rejection ofFerdinand as Crown Prince by primarily Hussite Bohemia, triggered the Thirty Years' War in 1618when his representatives were defenestrated in Prague.

The Thirty Years' War was fought between 1618 and 1648, principally on the territory of today'sGermany, and involved most of the major European powers. Beginning as a religious conflictbetween Protestants and Catholics in the Holy Roman Empire, it gradually developed into a generalwar involving much of Europe, for reasons not necessarily related to religion. The war marked acontinuation of the France-Habsburg rivalry for pre-eminence in Europe, which led later to direct

war between France and Spain. Military intervention by external powers such as Denmark andSweden on the Protestant side increased the duration of the war and the extent of its devastation. Inthe latter stages of the war, Catholic France, fearful of an increase in Habsburg power, alsointervened on the Protestant side.

Destruction of the fortress above the village ofGodesberg during the Cologne War 1583; thewalls were breached by mines, and most of the

defenders were put to death. Engraved by FranssHogenberg, a Dutch engraver and artist of the

16th century.

confessions of faith were acceptable:

Catholicism or the Augsburg

Confession (Lutheranism). Any other

expression of faith was heretical.

(2) The principle ofreservatum

ecclesiasticum protected religious

conformity within the ecclesiastical

estates, but it did not clearly state

how this was to be protected.

(3) TheDeclaratio Ferdinandei

granted certain exemptions to the

principle ofcuius regio, eius religio

to some knights, sovereign families,

and imperial cities.




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The major impact of the Thirty Years' War, in which mercenaryarmies were extensively used, was the devastation of entireregions scavenged bare by the foraging armies. Episodes ofwidespread famine and disease devastated the population of theGerman states and, to a lesser extent, the Low Countries andItaly, while bankrupting many of the powers involved. The war

ended with the Treaty of Mnster, a part of the wider Peace ofWestphalia.

During the war, Germany's population was reduced by 30% onaverage. In the territory of Brandenburg, the losses hadamounted to half, while in some areas an estimated two thirds ofthe population died. The population of the Czech lands declinedby a third. The Swedish armies alone destroyed 2,000 castles,18,000 villages and 1,500 towns in Germany, one-third of allGerman towns. Huge damage was done to monasteries, churchesand other religious institutions. The war had proved disastrous

for the German "Holy Roman Empire." Germany lost populationand territory, and was henceforth divided into hundreds oflargely impotent semi-independent states. The Imperial powerretreated to Austria and the Habsburg lands. The Netherlandsand Switzerland were confirmed in independence. The peaceinstitutionalised the Catholic, Lutheran, Calvinist religiousdivide in Germany, with populations either converting, ormoving to areas controlled by rulers of their own faith.

France

Main article: French Wars of Religion

The French Wars of Religion, (1562 to 1598) were a long and damaging series of conflicts in Francebetween Catholics and Protestant Huguenots, which lasted from the middle of the sixteenth centuryuntil the Edict of Nantes in 1598. The conflicts also involved a struggle for political control betweenthe Catholic League led by the powerful House of Guise (Lorraine), and the newly-Protestant Houseof Bourbon and its allies. Protestant forces from Germany and the Netherlands were sometimesinvolved. King Philip II of Spain, (Catholic), and Queen Elizabeth I of England, (Protestant), alsointervened financially and militarily.

As early as 1532, King Francois I, and (in 1551), King Henri II, had intervened politically and

militarily in support of the Protestant German princes against the Habsburgs. However both kingsfirmly repressed attempts to spread Lutheran ideas within France. An organised influx of Calvinistpreachers from Geneva and elsewhere during the 1550s, succeeded in setting up hundreds ofunderground Calvinist congregations in France.

The 1560s

In a pattern soon to become familiar in the Netherlands andScotland, underground Calvinist preaching, and the formation ofcovert alliances with members of the nobility quickly led to more direct action to gain political andreligious control. The prospect of taking over rich church properties and monastic lands had led

nobles in many parts of Europe to support a "princely" Reformation. Added to this was the newer,Calvinist, teaching that the leading citizens had the duty to overthrow an "ungodly" ruler (ie one whowas not supportive of Calvinism.) In March 1560, the "Amboise conspiracy", or "Tumult of

Ferdinand II, Holy RomanEmperor and King of Bohemia.

One of the leaders of the Catholiccause.




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Amboise", was an attempt on the part of a group of disaffectednobles to abduct the young king Francis II and eliminate theCatholic House of Guise. It was foiled when their plans werediscovered. The first major instances of systematic Protestantdestruction of images and statues in Catholic churches occurred inRouen and La Rochelle in 1560. The following year, the attacksextended to over 20 cities and towns, and would, in turn, inciteCatholic urban groups to massacres and riots in Sens, Cahors,

Carcassonne, Tours and other cities.[1]

In December 1560, Francis II died and Catherine de' Medicibecame regent for her young son Charles IX. Although a RomanCatholic, she was prepared to deal favourably with the HuguenotHouse of Bourbon. She therefore supported religious toleration inthe shape of the Edict of Saint-Germain (January 1562), whichallowed the Huguenots to worship publicly outside of towns andprivately inside of them. On March 1, however, a faction of theGuise family's retainers attacked an illegal Calvinist service inWassy-sur-Blaise in Champagne. As hostilities broke out, the Edictwas revoked.

This provoked the First War. The Bourbons, with English support, and led by Louis I de Bourbon,Prince de Cond, and Admiral Coligny began to seize and garrison strategic towns along the Loire.The Battle of Dreux and the battle of Orlans, were the first major engagements of the conflict. InFebruary 1563, at Orlans, Francis, Duke of Guise was assassinated, and Catherine's fears that thewar might drag on led her to mediate a truce and the Edict of Amboise (1563), which again providedfor a controlled religious toleration of Protestant worship.

However this was generally regarded as unsatisfactory by both Catholics and Protestants. The

political temperature of the surrounding lands was rising, as religious unrest grew in the Netherlands.The Huguenots tried to gain French government support for intervention against the Spanish forcesarriving in the Netherlands. Failing this, Protestant troops then made an unsuccessful attempt tocapture and take control of King Charles IX at Meaux in 1567. This provoked a further outbreak ofhostilities (the Second War) which ended in another unsatisfactory truce, the Peace of Longjumeau(March 1568).

In September of that year, war again broke out (the Third War). Catherine and Charles decided thistime to ally themselves with the House of Guise. The Huguenot army was under the command ofLouis I de Bourbon, prince de Cond and aided by forces from south-eastern France and a contingentof Protestant militias from Germany including 14,000 mercenary reiters led by the Calvinist

Duke of Zweibrcken.[2]

After the Duke was killed in action, he was succeeded by the Count ofMansfeld and the Dutch William of Orange and his brothers Louis and Henry. Much of theHuguenots' financing came from Queen Elizabeth of England. The Catholics were commanded bythe Duke d'Anjou (later King Henry III) and assisted by troops from Spain, the Papal States and the

Grand Duchy of Tuscany.[3]

The Protestant army laid siege to several cities in the Poitou and Saintonge regions (to protect LaRochelle), and then Angoulme and Cognac. At the Battle of Jarnac (16 March 1569), the Prince deCond was killed, forcing Admiral de Coligny to take command of the Protestant forces. Colignyand his troops retreated to the south-west and regrouped with Gabriel, comte de Montgomery, and inspring of 1570 they pillaged Toulouse, cut a path through the south of France and went up the Rhone

valley up to La Charit-sur-Loire. The staggering royal debt and Charles IX's desire to seek apeaceful solution[4] led to the Peace of Saint-Germain-en-Laye (8 August 1570), which once moreallowed some concessions to the Huguenots. In 1572, rising tensions between local Catholics and

The fortified harbour of LaRochelle in western France,

became a Protestantstronghold that was foughtover in two lengthy sieges.




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Protestant forces attending the wedding of the Protestant Henri of Navarre, and the King's sister,Marguerite de Valois, culminated in the Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre. This led to the Fourthand Fifth Civil wars in 1572 and 1573-1576.

Henry III

Henry of Anjou was crowned King Henry III of France in 1575, at Rheims, but hostilities the FifthWar

had already flared up again.

Henry soon found himself in the difficult position of trying to maintain royal authority in the face offeuding warlords who refused to compromise. In 1576, the King signed the Edict of Beaulieu,granting minor concessions to the Calvinists, but a briefSixth Civil War took place in 1577. HenryI, Duke of Guise, formed the Catholic League to protect the Catholic cause in France. Furtherhostilities the Seventh War (1579-1580) ended in the stalemate of the Treaty of Fleix.

The fragile compromise came to an end in 1584, when the King's youngest brother and heirpresumptive, Franois, Duke of Anjou, died. As Henry III had no son, under Salic Law, the next heirto the throne was the Calvinist Prince Henri of Navarre. Under pressure from the Duke of Guise,

Henri III reluctantly issued an edict suppressing Protestantism and annulling Henri of Navarre's rightto the throne.

In December 1584, the Duke of Guise signed the Treaty of Joinville on behalf of the CatholicLeague with Philip II of Spain, who supplied a considerable annual grant to the League. Thesituation degenerated into the Eighth War (1585-1589). Henry of Navarre again sought foreign aidfrom the German princes and Elizabeth I of England. Meanwhile, the solidly Catholic people ofParis, under the influence of the Committee of Sixteen were becoming dissatisfied with Henry IIIand his failure to defeat the Calvinists. On 12 May 1588, a popular uprising raised barricades on thestreets of Paris, and Henry III fled the city. The Committee of Sixteen took complete control of thegovernment and welcomed the Duke of Guise to Paris. The Guises then proposed a settlement with a

cipher as heir and demanded a meeting of the Estates-General, which was to be held in Blois.

King Henri decided to strike first. On December 23, 1588, at the Chteau de Blois, Henry of Guiseand his brother, the Cardinal de Guise, were lured into a trap and were murdered. The Duke of Guisehad been highly popular in France, and the league declared open war against King Henry. TheParlement of Paris instituted criminal charges against the King, who now joined forces with hiscousin, Henry of Navarre, to war against the League.

Charles of Lorraine, Duke of Mayenne, then became the leader of the Catholic League. Leaguepresses began printing anti-royalist tracts under a variety of pseudonyms, while the Sorbonneproclaimed that it was just and necessary to depose Henri III. In July 1589, in the royal camp atSaint-Cloud, a monk named Jacques Clment gained an audience with the King and drove a longknife into his spleen. Clment was executed on the spot, taking with him the information of who, ifanyone, had hired him. On his deathbed, Henri III called for Henry of Navarre, and begged him, inthe name of Statecraft, to become a Catholic, citing the brutal warfare that would ensue if he refused.In keeping with Salic Law, he named Henri as his heir.

Henry IV

The situation on the ground in 1589 was that King Henry IV of France, as Navarre had become, heldthe south and west, and the Catholic League the north and east. The leadership of the CatholicLeague had devolved to the Duke de Mayenne, who was appointed Lieutenant-General of thekingdom. He and his troops controlled most of rural Normandy. However, in September 1589, Henryinflicted a severe defeat on the Duke at the Battle of Arques. Henry's army swept through Normandy,taking town after town throughout the winter.




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The King knew that he had to take Paris if he stood any chance of ruling all of France. This,however, was no easy task. The Catholic League's presses and supporters continued to spread storiesabout atrocities committed against Catholic priests and the laity in Protestant England (see FortyMartyrs of England and Wales). The city prepared to fight to the death rather than accept a Calvinistking. The Battle of Ivry, fought on March 14, 1590, was another victory for the king, and Henry'sforces went on to lay siege to Paris, but the siege was broken by Spanish support. Realising that his

predecessor had been right and that there was no prospect of a Protestant king succeeding in CatholicParis, Henry reputedly uttered the famous phrase Paris vaut bien une messe (Paris is well worth amass). He was formally received into the Roman Catholic Church in 1593 and was crowned atChartres in 1594.

Some members of the League fought on, but enough Catholics were won over by the King'sconversion to increasingly isolate the diehards. The Spanish withdrew from France under the termsof the Peace of Vervins. Henry was faced with the task of rebuilding a shattered and impoverishedKingdom and reuniting France under a single authority. The wars concluded with the issuing of theEdict of Nantes by Henry IV of France, which granted a degree of religious toleration to Protestants.

France, although always ruled by a Catholic monarch, had played a major part in supporting theProtestants in Germany and the Netherlands against their dynastic rivals, the Habsburgs. The periodof the French Wars of Religion effectively removed France's influence as a major European power,allowing the Catholic forces in the Holy Roman Empire to regroup and recover.

The Netherlands

The Low Countries have a particular history of religious conflict which had its roots in the Calvinistreformation movement of the 1560s. These conflicts became known as the Dutch Revolt or theEighty Years' War. By dynastic inheritance the whole of the Netherlands, (modern day Holland andBelgium)had come to be ruled by the kings of Spain. Following aggressive Calvinist preaching inand around the rich merchant cities of the southern Netherlands, organized anti-catholic religiousprotests grew in violence and frequency. In 1566, a league of about 400 members of the highnobility, themselves disgruntled at Spanish rule, presented a petition to the governor Margaret ofParma, to suspend punitive actions against the Calvinists.

In early August 1566, a mob stormed the churchof Hondschoote in Flanders (now in Northern

France).[5] This relatively small incident spreadNorth and led to the Beeldenstorm, a massiveiconoclastic movement by Calvinists, whostormed churches and other religious buildings to

desecrate and destroy statues and images ofCatholic saints all over the Netherlands.According to the Calvinists, these statuesrepresented worship of idols. The number ofactual image-breakers appears to have beenrelatively small. Limm (1989) notes that "therewere few cases of more than 200 people beinginvolved at any one time" even in the northernprovinces, where large crowds often attended theiconoclasm. In the case of the southernprovinces, he speaks of a relatively small,

orderly group moving along the country. Spaans(1999) argues that iconoclasm was actually organized by local elites for political reasons [6] Ingeneral, local authorities did not step in to rein in the vandalism. The actions of the iconoclasts drove

Iconoclasm: The organised destruction of Catholicimages swept through Netherlands churches in

1566.




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the nobility into two camps, with William of Orange and other grandees supporting the iconoclasts,and others, notably Henry of Brederode, opposing them.

In 1568, William returned to try and drive the highly unpopular Duke of Alba from Brussels. A co-ordinated Protestant attempt was made to take over the Netherlands from four different directions,with armies led by William's brothers invading from Germany and French Huguenots invading fromthe south. The Battle of Rheindalen near Roermond occurred on 23 April 1568 and was won by the

Spanish, but the Battle of Heiligerlee, fought on 23 May 1568, resulted in a victory for the rebelarmy. However the rebel campaign ended in failure as William ran out of money to pay his army andhis allies were destroyed by Alba.

In its battle to maintain Catholic control of the Low Countries, Spain was severely hampered by thefact that it was also fighting a war against the Ottoman Empire in the Mediterranean. Even so, by1570 the Spanish had mostly suppressed the rebellion throughout the Netherlands. However, onApril 1, 1572, Dutch Calvinist raiders, known as Sea Beggars, forced from sanctuary in England,unexpectedly captured the almost undefended northern Netherlands town of Brielle. Most of theimportant cities in the provinces of Holland and Zealand immediately declared loyalty to the rebels.Notable exceptions were Amsterdam and Middelburg, which remained loyal to the Catholic cause

until capture in 1578. William of Orange was put at the head of the revolt, entering the Netherlandswith an army 20,000 strong, and with forces of French Huguenots in support.

Division

The new revolt led to increasing discord amongst the Dutch. On one side was a militant Calvinistminority that wanted to continue fighting the Catholic King Philip II, and convert all Dutch citizensto Calvinism. On the other was a minority of Catholics that wanted to remain loyal to the Landholder(Dutch: landvoogd) and the Spanish-backed government below him. In between was the majority ofhistorically Catholic citizens who had no particular allegiance, but shared a desire to restore Dutchprivileges and to get rid of the Spanish mercenary armies. Alba was replaced in 1573 by Luis de

Requesens and a new policy of moderation was attempted. However Spain's inability to pay itsmercenary armies led to numerous mutinies and in November 1576 troops sacked Antwerp at thecost of some 8,000 lives. This so-called "Spanish Fury" strengthened the resolve of the rebels in theseventeen provinces. William of Orange took advantage of the anarchy to establish wider control ofvirtually the whole Netherlands in alliance with the States-General, entering Brussels in September1577.

On January 6, 1579, upset by Calvinist outrages in Oudenarde, Kortrijk, Briges and Ieper, and thecontinued aggressive Calvinism of the Northern States, some of the Southern States signed theUnion of Arras (Atrecht), declaring their loyalty to the Spanish king. In response, William united thenorthern states of Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders and the province of Groningen in the Union

of Utrecht on January 23, 1579. Some southern cities like Bruges, Ghent, Brussels and Antwerpoined the Union of Utrecht, and effectively, the 17 provinces were now divided into two warringstates.

Over the following years, Parma reconquered the major part of Flanders and Brabant, as well aslarge parts of the northeastern provinces. The Roman Catholic religion was restored in much of thisarea. In 1585, Antwerp the largest city in the Low Countries at the time fell into his hands,which caused over half its population to flee to the north (see also Siege of Antwerp).

The Netherlands were split into an independent northern part, whilethe southern part remained under Spanish control. Due to thealmost uninterrupted rule of the Calvinist-dominated separatists, most of the population of the

northern provinces became converted to Protestantism over the next decades. The south, underSpanish rule, remained a Catholic stronghold; most of its Protestants fled to the north. Spain retaineda large military presence in the south, where it could also be used against France. After a period of




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peace, war took up again in 1622, to be finally ended on January30, 1648, with the Treaty of Mnster between Spain and theindependent Netherlands. This treaty was part of the European scalePeace of Westphalia that also ended the Thirty Years' War.

Switzerland

In 1529 under the lead of Huldrych Zwingli, the Protestant cantonand city of Zrich had concluded with other Protestant cantons adefence alliance, the Christliches Burgrecht, which also includedthe cities of Konstanz and Strasbourg. The Catholic cantons inresponse had formed an alliance with Ferdinand of Austria.

After numerous minor incidents and provocations from both sides, a Catholic priest was executed inthe Thurgau in May 1528, and the Protestant pastor J. Keyser was burned at the stake in Schwyz in1529. The last straw was the installation of a Catholic reeve at Baden, and Zrich declared war on 8June, occupied the Thurgau and the territories of the Abbey of St. Gall and marched to Kappel at the

border to Zug. Open war was avoided by means of a peace agreement (Erster Landfriede), that wasnot exactly favourable to the Catholic side, who had to dissolve its alliance with the AustrianHabsburgs. The tensions remained essentially unresolved, and would flare high again in the secondwar of Kappel two years later.

On October 11, 1531, the Catholic cantons decisively defeated the forces of Zrich in the Battle ofKappel. The Zrich troops had little support from allied Protestant cantons, and Huldrych Zwingliwas killed on the battlefield, along with twenty-four other pastors.

After the defeat, the forces of Zrich regrouped and attempted tooccupy the Zugerberg, and some of them camped on the Gubel hillnear Menzingen. A small force of Aegeri succeeded in routing thecamp, and the demoralized Zrich force had to retreat, forcing theProtestants to agree to a peace treaty to their disadvantage.Switzerland was to be divided into a patchwork of Protestant andCatholic cantons, with the Protestants tending to dominate thelarger cities, and the Catholics the more rural areas.

Britain and Ireland

The Reformation came to Britain with King Henry VIII of England's breach with the CatholicChurch in 1533. At this time there were only a limited number of Protestants among the general

population, and these were mostly living in the towns of the South and the East of England. With thestate-ordered break with the Pope in Rome, the Church in England, Wales and Ireland was placedunder the rule of the King and Parliament.

The first major changes to doctrine and practice took place under Vicar-General Thomas Cromwell,and the newly appointed Protestant-leaning Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer. TheDissolution of the Monasteries, which began in 1536, provoked a violent northern Catholic rebellionin the Pilgrimage of Grace, which was eventually put down with much bloodshed. The reformationcontinued to be imposed on an often unwilling population with the aid of stern laws that made ittreason, punishable by death, to oppose the King's actions with respect to religion. The next majorarmed resistance took place in the Prayer Book Rebellion of 1549, which was an unsuccessful risingin western England against the enforced substitution of Cranmer's English language service for theLatin Catholic Mass.

Following the restoration of Catholicisn under Queen Mary I in 1553, there was a brief unsuccessful

At the 2nd Battle of Kappel,Zwingli's supporters weredefeated, and Zwingli was

killed.

This picture illustrates thedevastation of the religious

wars in the Dutch provinces.




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Protestant rising in the South east of England.

Scottish Reformation

The Reformation in Scotland began in conflict. Fiery Calvinist preacher John Knox returned toScotland in 1560, having been exiled for his part in the assassination of Cardinal Beaton. He

proceeded to Dundee where a large number of Protestant sympathisers and noblemen had gathered.Knox was declared an outlaw by the Queen Regent, Mary of Guise,but the Protestants went at onceto Perth, a walled town that could be defended in case of a siege. At the church of St John theBaptist, Knox preached a fiery sermon which provoked an iconoclastic riot. A mob poured into thechurch and it was entirely gutted. In the pattern of Calvinist riots in France and the Netherlands, themob then attacked two friaries in the town, looting their gold and silver and smashing images. Maryof Guise gathered those nobles loyal to her and a small French army.

However, with Protestant reinforcements arriving from neighbouring counties, the queen regentretreated to Dunbar. By now Calvinist mobs had overrun much of central Scotland, destroyingmonasteries and catholic churches as they went. On 30 June, the Protestants occupied Edinburgh,though they were only able to hold it for a month. But even before their arrival, the mob had alreadysacked the churches and the friaries. On 1 July, Knox preached from the pulpit of St Giles', the most

influential in the capital.[7]

Knox negotiated by letter with William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, Elizabeth's chief advisor, forEnglish support. When additional French troops arrived in Leith, Edinburgh's seaport, the Protestantsresponded by retaking Edinburgh. This time, on 24 October 1559, the Scottish nobility formallydeposed Mary of Guise from the regency. Her secretary, William Maitland of Lethington, defected tothe Protestant side, bringing his administrative skills. For the final stage of the revolution, Maitlandappealed to Scottish patriotism to fight French domination. Support from England finally arrived andby the end of March, a significant English army joined the Scottish Protestant forces. The suddendeath of Mary of Guise in Edinburgh Castle on 10 June 1560 paved the way for the signing of the

Treaty of Edinburgh, and the withdrawal of French and English troops from Scotland, leaving theScottish Calvinists in control on the ground. Catholicism was forcibly suppressed.

The return of Mary Queen of Scots to Scotland in 1560, led to further tension between her and theProtestant Lords of the Congregation. Mary claimed to favour religious toleration on the Frenchmodel, however the Protestant establishment feared a reestablishment of Catholicism, and soughtwith English help to neutralise or depose Mary. Mary's marriage to a leading Catholic, precipitatedMary's half-brother, the Earl of Moray, to join with other Protestant Lords in open rebellion. Maryset out for Stirling on 26 August 1565 to confront them. Moray and the rebellious lords were routedand fled into exile, the decisive military action becoming known as the Chaseabout Raid. In 1567,however, Mary was captured by another rebellious force at the Carberry Hill and imprisoned in Loch

Leven Castle, where she was forced to abdicate the Scottish throne in favour of her one-year-old sonJames. Mary escaped from Loch Leven the following year, and once again managed to raise a smallarmy. After her army's defeat at the Battle of Langside on May 13, she fled to England, where shewas imprisoned by Queen Elizabeth. Her son James was raised as a Protestant, later becoming Kingof England as well as Scotland.

English Civil War

Great Britain, under the Stewart king, James I, continued Elizabeth I's policy of providing militarysupport to European Protestants in the Netherlands and France. King Charles I decided to send anexpeditionary force to relieve the French Huguenots whom Royal French forces held besieged in La

Rochelle. However tax-raising authority for these wars was getting harder and harder to raise fromparliament.




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Charles soon needed to raise more money to suppress a rebellion of Catholics in Ireland. MeanwhileEnglish Puritans and Scottish Calvinists intensely opposed the king's main religious policy ofunifying the Church of England and the Church of Scotland under a form of High ChurchAnglicanism. This, its opponents believed, was far too catholic in form, and based on the authority ofbishops. In 1638 the Scottish National Covenant was signed by aggrevied presbyterian lords andcommoners, A Scottish rebellion, known as the Bishops War soon followed, leading to the defeat of

a weak royalist counter-force in 1640. The rebels went on to capture Newcastle upon Tyne, furtherweakening King Charles' authority.

The English parliament refused to vote enough money for Charles to defeat the Scots without theKing giving up much of his authority and reforming the English church along more Calvinist lines.This the king refused, and deteriorating relations led to the out break of war in 1642. The firstpitched battle of the war, fought at Edgehill on 23 October 1642, proved inconclusive, and both theRoyalists and Parliamentarians claimed it as a victory. The second field action of the war, the stand-off at Turnham Green, saw Charles forced to withdraw to Oxford. This city would serve as his basefor the remainder of the war.

In general, the early part of the war went well for the Royalists. The turning-point came in the latesummer and early autumn of 1643, when the Earl of Essex's army forced the king to raise the siegeof Gloucester and then brushed the Royalist army aside at the First Battle of Newbury on 20September 1643. In an attempt to gain an advantage in numbers Charles negotiated a ceasefire withthe Catholic rebels in Ireland, freeing up English troops to fight on the Royalist side in England.Simultaneously Parliament offered concessions to the Scots in return for their aid and assistance.

With the help of the Scots, Parliament won at Marston Moor (2 July 1644), gaining York and muchof the north of England. Oliver Cromwell's conduct in this battle proved decisive, and demonstratedhis leadership potential. In 1645 Parliament passed the Self-denying Ordinance, by which allmembers of either House of Parliament laid down their commands, allowing the re-organization of

its main forces into the New Model Army. By 1646 Charles had been forced to surrender himself tothe Scots and the parliamentary forces were in control of England. Charles was executed in 1649,and the monarchy was not restored until 1660. Even then, religious strife continued through theGlorious Revolution and even thereafter.

Ireland

See also: Cromwellian conquest of Ireland

Ireland had known continuous war since the rebellion of 1641, with most of the island controlled bythe Irish Confederates. Increasingly threatened by the armies of the English Parliament after Charles

I's arrest in 1648, the Confederates signed a treaty of alliance with the English Royalists. The jointRoyalist and Confederate forces under the Duke of Ormonde attempted to eliminate theParliamentary army holding Dublin, but their opponents routed them at the Battle of Rathmines (2August 1649). As the former Member of Parliament Admiral Robert Blake blockaded PrinceRupert's fleet in Kinsale, Oliver Cromwell could land at Dublin on 15 August 1649 with an army toquell the Royalist alliance in Ireland.

Cromwell's suppression of the Royalists in Ireland during 1649 still has a strong resonance for manyIrish people. After the siege of Drogheda, the massacre of nearly 3,500 people comprising around2,700 Royalist soldiers and all the men in the town carrying arms, including civilians, prisoners, andCatholic priests became one of the historical memories that has driven Irish-English and Catholic-Protestant strife during the last three centuries. However, the massacre has significance mainly as a

symbol of the Irish perception of Cromwellian cruelty, as far more people died in the subsequentguerrilla and scorched-earth fighting in the country than at infamous massacres such as Droghedaand Wexford. The Parliamentarian conquest of Ireland ground on for another four years until 1653,




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when the last Irish Confederate and Royalist troops surrendered. Historians have estimated that up to30% of Ireland's population either died or had gone into exile by the end of the wars. The victorsconfiscated almost all Irish Catholic-owned land in the wake of the conquest and distributed it to theParliament's creditors, to the Parliamentary soldiers who served in Ireland, and to English peoplewho had settled there before the war.

Scotland, Civil War

See also: Scotland in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms#Montrose's defeat and death andScotland in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms#Third Civil War

The execution of Charles I altered the dynamics of the the Civil War in Scotland, which had ragedbetween Royalists and Covenanters since 1644. By 1649, the struggle had left the Royalists there indisarray and their erstwhile leader, the Marquess of Montrose, had gone into exile. However,Montrose, who had raised a mercenary force in Norway, later returned, but did not succeed in raisingmany Highland clans and the Covenanters defeated his army at the Battle of Carbisdale in Ross-shireon 27 April 1650. The victors captured Montrose shortly afterwards and took him to Edinburgh. On20 May the Scottish Parliament sentenced him to death and had him hanged the next day.

Charles II landed in Scotland at Garmouth inMorayshire on 23 June 1650 and signed the 1638National Covenant and the 1643 Solemn League andCovenant immediately after coming ashore. With hisoriginal Scottish Royalist followers and his newCovenanter allies, King Charles II became thegreatest threat facing the new English republic. Inresponse to the threat, Cromwell left some of hislieutenants in Ireland to continue the suppression ofthe Irish Royalists and returned to England.

He arrived in Scotland on 22 July 1650 andproceeded to lay siege to Edinburgh. By the end ofAugust disease and a shortage of supplies hadreduced his army, and he had to order a retreattowards his base at Dunbar. A Scottish army,assembled under the command of David Leslie, tried to block the retreat, but Cromwell defeatedthem at the Battle of Dunbar on September 3. Cromwell's army then took Edinburgh, and by the endof the year his army had occupied much of southern Scotland.

In July 1651, Cromwell's forces crossed the Firth of Forth into Fife and defeated the Scots at the

Battle of Inverkeithing (20 July 1651). The New Model Army advanced towards Perth, whichallowed Charles, at the head of the Scottish army, to move south into England. Cromwell followedCharles into England, leaving George Monck to finish the campaign in Scotland. Monck tookStirling on 14 August and Dundee on 1 September. The next year, 1652, saw the mopping up of theremnants of Royalist resistance, and under the terms of the "Tender of Union".

Despite the triumph of Calvinist forces in the south and lowlands of Scotland, many highland clansremained either Catholic or Episcopalian in sympathy. The Catholic Clan MacDonald was subject tothe Glencoe Massacre for being late in pledging loyalty to the Protestant King William III in 1691.And Highland clans rallied to the support of Catholic claimants to the British throne in the failedJacobite Risings of the erstwhile Stuart King James III in 1715 and Charles Edward Stuart in 1745.

Denmark

"Cromwell at Dunbar", Andrew Carrick Gow.




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In 1524, King Christian II converted to Lutheranism and encouraged Lutheran preachers to enterDenmark despite the opposition of the Danish diet of 1524. Following the death of King Frederick Iin 1533, war broke out between Catholic followers of Count Christoph of Oldenburg, and the firmlyLutheran Count Christian of Holstein. After losing his main support in Lubeck, Christoph quicklyfell to defeat, finally losing his last stronghold of Copenhagen in 1536. Lutheranism wasimmediately established, the Catholic bishops were imprisoned, and monastic and church lands were

soon confiscated to pay for the armies that had brought Christian to power. In Denmark thisincreased royal revenues by 300%.

Thirty Years' War. In 1625 Christian IV of Denmark, who was also the Duke of Holstein, agreed tohelp the Lutheran rulers of neighbouring Lower Saxony against the forces of the Holy RomanEmpire by intervening militarily. Denmark's cause was aided by France which, together withEngland, had agreed to help subsidize the war. Christian had himself appointed war leader of theLower Saxon Alliance and raised an army of 20,000-35,000 mercenaries. Christian, however, wasforced to retire before the combined forces of Imperial generals Albrecht von Wallenstein and Tilly.Wallenstein's army marched north, occupying Mecklenburg, Pomerania, and ultimately Jutland.However, lacking a fleet, he was unable to take the Danish capital on the island of Zealand. Peace

negotiations were concluded in the Treaty of Lbeck in 1629, which stated that Christian IV couldkeep his control over Denmark if he would abandon his support for the Protestant German states.

References

1. ^ Salmon, pp.136-7.2. ^ Jouanna, p.181.3. ^ Jouanna, p.182.4. ^ Jouanna, pp.184-5.5. ^ Van der Horst, Han (2000).Nederland, de vaderlandse geschiedenis van de prehistorie tot nu (in

Dutch) (3rd ed.). Bert Bakker. pp.133. ISBN 90-351-2722-6.

6. ^ Spaans, J. "Catholicism and Resistance to the Reformation in the Northern Netherlands". In: Benedict,Ph., and others (eds),Reformation, Revolt and Civil War in France and the Netherlands, 1555-1585(Amsterdam 1999), 149-163).

7. ^ MacGregor 1957, p.127

Greengrass, Mark. The European Reformation 1500-1618. Longman, 1998. ISBN 0 582061741

MacCulloch, Diarmaid. The Reformation: A History. New York: Penguin 2003.

See also

Concordat of Worms English Reformation

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